Uvaria suberosa Roxburgh, Pl. Coromandel 1: 31. 1795; Guatteria suberosa (Roxburgh) Dunal.

Shrubs or small trees, to 5 m tall. Bark corky, ridged. Branchlets dark red, rust-colored pubescent when young, glabrescent, with pink lenticels and corky ridges when older. Petiole 2-4 mm, puberulent; leaf blade oblong, elliptic-oblong, or narrowly obovate-oblong, 5-11 × 2-4 cm, membranous to papery, abaxially pale brown when dry and glabrescent, adaxially gray and glabrous except for sparse pubescence along midvein, secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, spreading, and inconspicuous on both surfaces, reticulate veins lax and inconspicuous, base narrowed and slightly oblique, apex subobtuse to rounded and sometimes abruptly shortly acuminate. Inflorescences extra-axillary, leaf-opposed, or slightly below leaf, 1(or 2)-flowered. Pedicel 0.7-2.5 cm, puberulent; bracteole near base of pedicel, minute, apex acute. Sepals ovate-triangular, 2-2.5 mm, outside pubescent, inside glabrous. Petals yellowish green; outer petals oblong-lanceolate, shorter than inner petals, leathery, flat and spreading, outside slightly pubescent, inside glabrous, apex acute; inner petals oblong, erect and curved, ca. 10 mm, apex obtuse. Stamens many, ca. 1 mm; connectives apically convex. Carpels many, ca. 2 mm, pubescent; ovules 1 or 2 per carpel; styles widening into a thickly triangular bladelike glabrous stigma. Monocarp stipes 8-10 mm, slender; monocarps to 18, red, almost spherical, ca. 5 mm in diam., sparsely appressed pubescent or glabrescent. Seeds 1 or 2 per monocarp, with a longitudinal circumferential band. Fl. almost year-round, fr. Jun-Dec. 2n = 18.

Open forests at lower elevations. S Guangdong, S Guangxi, Hainan [India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].